Since my last post I completely stripped the Texas frame to nothing but the frame. All the wiring, fuel lines, axles, springs, coil buckets, etc. If it bolted on it was removed, or in the case of the coil buckets, even riveted on. I want to get it cleaned up and painted next.
While in Texas the last time I was at Mike's house and he had me drive his EX. Needless to say I have now switched gears and am going to do the '05+ axle swap. I was planning on putting all new springs on the rebuild. After figuring all the base costs, it shouldn't be any more to do the axle swap (depending on what would need replaced on the new axles). I likely would have replaced all replaceable front end components on the existing axles anyway when I put the new springs on. Thanks Mike!! So now I get newer springs, better brakes, better turning, better ride for the price of new springs. At least that's what I told the wife LOL.

On to cleaning up the Texas frame. I was originally looking at a few different options to clean up the frame. Power washing, sand blasting, wire wheel, sanding, power washer-sanding blasting and probably a few others I have already forgotten about. I power washed the frame and took off all the dirt and some grease and oil, but not all of it. From previous experience, I knew wire wheel, and sanding would be very time consuming, and sand blasting would probably be the fastest, although dirty/dusty and use a lot of sand (not to mention the cumbersome safety gear). I liked the idea of power washing-sand blasting but didn't have the attachment and didn't want to buy it. Ends up a buddy of mine had one, and after a few false starts.... It works great. The blast area is kinda small, and wet sand blowback makes it look like you been at the beach all day rolling around in the sand. I ended up using play sand not silica, and as long as it is dry, it works well. It only runs about $4.00 a 50lb bag, and I think I can do the whole frame with 4-5 bags, YMMV. You do get some flash rust as you clean the frame up, but that is easily taken care of with a DA with 80 grit and wire wheels. This process yielded a nice smooth surface, not pitted from sand blasting, like I have experienced in the past. The first day I just wore shorts and a t-shirt, with googles. I didn't have any safety issues with that, although I damn near had to take a shower with degreaser with all of the grease, paint and undercoating on my legs. Today I am going to wear rain pants, coat and a hat or something. I still feel like I have sand in my hair. I put up a 10'x27' canopy and got a 19'x29' tarp so 1 side and the roof has cover and 1 side and both ends are open. I can still cover the ends and/or side and probably will when I go to paint. On to the pics:

The paint booth

The power washer attachment, it just hooks up to the end of your wand. No sand goes through the power washing equipment, just the attachment

The sand

The frame after power washing only

After the next step power washing-sand blasting. The first pic shows some more than just surface rust where the coil bucket sat against the frame. And I still need to finish getting the rivets out.

And after some DA and wire wheel work. Smooth as a babies butt. You can see where I stopped the DA at the 2 rivets toward the center of the pic

I was in a bit of a hurry cleaning up (since we had dinner plans), So I didn't get a chance to get any paint on the part that was done. As of this morning no rust on the area that is complete. Going forward I will probably power wash-sand blast the entire frame before moving on to the wire wheel and DA. I just did it yesterday to see if the process would work. That and my ADHD keeps me from being able to wait, or complete anything. Can you have ADHD and OCD both? My brain is constantly struggling to see which acronym will win LOL.

Very nice indeed! Whatís that attachment for the sand? Does the water pressure just pull the sand through or are there other parts?

Edit: and does it work quickly? Or does it take a while? Quick internet search shows me they are available at Home Depot and other places and arenít super expensive either!

What is in the pic is all there is to it. Water pressure/flow creates venturi and pulls sand in. I saw it on Northern Tool for about $100.00. It is not as fast as a sand blaster. The tip has to be pretty close to the work and the blast area is a little bigger than a pencil. It depends on what you are taking off. It seems to take off paint and most of the undercoating pretty quickly. It takes longer for rust. I am using a 3100 PSI 2.8 gal pressure washer with play sand. The first day I did the outside of one side of the frame. It went quick and didn't seem to use a lot of sand. Yesterday I did the crossmembers. Took longer and used more sand. There was more rust on the crossmembers and more contour. I would think better blasting media would handle the rust better. Also higher pressure, more flow would change things as well.

I mention flow vs pressure, because flow does play a significant part. When I first started using it, it would not work. I was using rain water that I collect in 275 gallon totes. I have a small pump that I pump the water out of the totes with and it has always worked well when using the pressure washer. No matter what setting I used on the pressure washer it would not pick up sand. I switched over to my yard hydrant and it worked fine. Also, with play sand, it has to be dry. One bag I got had a little moisture in it and it would not pick up the sand.

My original estimate of 4-5 bags of sand went out the window yesterday. I'm probably not quite halfway done and have already gone through 3 bags.

Great progress and please keep the pictures coming. I would really like to do a similar job to my 2005 Ex next year.

Would it be at all possible for you to post some dimensions of the frame mount dimensions of your wooden cradle? We are cleaning house at the machine shop I work at from time to time and I would like to weld up a frame to hold my Ex body and have it ready in advance.

Great progress and please keep the pictures coming. I would really like to do a similar job to my 2005 Ex next year.

Would it be at all possible for you to post some dimensions of the frame mount dimensions of your wooden cradle? We are cleaning house at the machine shop I work at from time to time and I would like to weld up a frame to hold my Ex body and have it ready in advance.

Thanks,

Rob

I will get some measurements for you, but it might be a little bit. I am swamped right now and the body on the cradle is not at my house. I might be able to figure some rough dimensions if you need them right now.

Take your time. I am not in a rush. How about providing measurements once your Ex body is back on the frame and the cradle is sitting free. You have PLENTY on your plate right now and I won't be touching anything till next year the way life looks right now.

Take your time. I am not in a rush. How about providing measurements once your Ex body is back on the frame and the cradle is sitting free. You have PLENTY on your plate right now and I won't be touching anything till next year the way life looks right now.

Haven't had much time to work on the project much this summer. I did get back to blasting on the frame. I ended up doing some standard sand blasting as the nozzle setup on the pressure washer-sand blasting is kind of big and you need to be somewhat close. I had some areas that I couldn't get to with the pressure washer-sand blasting nozzle and standard sand blasting worked for those areas. I'm pretty much done blasting and am cleaning the frame up with a DA and other sanding. I'll get some more pics up of the sand blasting equipment, and try to figure out how much sand I ended up using. I've spent so much time working on this that I am thinking I may take the frame to be powder coated.